


(Dis)Connected

by estike



Category: Warrior Nun (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, F/F, Virtual Reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25800436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estike/pseuds/estike
Summary: It is the year 2219. Ava Silva is a quadriplegic orphan, safely tucked away from the eyes of the world in an underfunded Andalusian orphanage. Her only escape and entertainment is an outdated virtual reality game that stopped updating long years ago, but where she can pretend that her life is anywhere close to normal. Then, she meets something in the virtual world she never encountered before.
Relationships: Ava Silva/Sister Beatrice
Comments: 36
Kudos: 221





	1. Ghost Town

**Author's Note:**

> If you read any of my other fics I'm sure by now you understand that I am just very interested in exploring altered realities.
> 
> Ironically, this idea came to me in a dream.

Every day started the same. She’d be woken up at eight in the morning sharp by the same outdated robot she’d see every day in here, who was made to specialize nursing over twenty-something years ago. An ancient model with limited conversational ability but very stubborn programming to do its job and its job only. At times, before she would feel jaded by being locked up in here, Ava attempted to have conversations with her caretaker when she felt particularly bored, but the only thing it was willing to do was responding to emergencies. Small talk? No thanks. 

Whoever invented these robots did not seem to be thinking that people who needed nursing might also need to socialize.

Wake up, small breakfast. Four hours of free time until lunch. Six hours of free time until dinner. Sleep. Repeat.

If it wasn’t for Diego who she shared her room with, Ava would have probably withered without company years ago. Before Diego was assigned to the same room as her, she lived like she was condemned to solitary confinement. Her contact with the human staff of this establishment was so scarce that Ava sometimes would doubt that they even existed.

But when Diego came, things became somewhat easier. There was someone to talk to her. She also had living proof that humanity wasn't wiped out since the last time she was outside.

Diego would even help to hook her up to this virtual reality console that the orphanage got as a donation years before Ava was even committed to this place — probably along with the last proper funding the establishment received too. 

Ava would not be surprised if one day the robots would malfunction or break down, and leave them to starve only for their bodies to be found decades later in this rundown building, overrun by the flora and reclaimed by nature. To be fair, when days were bad — and days were often bad — she almost found the thought comforting, if not outright exciting. 

“Ready?” Diego asked, helping her boot up the game. 

“You kidding? Was born ready.” 

“See you around in the game, Ava.” 

She only wished there were more choices available at times. The only game this console had installed was some strange adventure game infused with elements of fantasy, set a couple of hundred years before them in the past. Ava was not the biggest fan of this game — when she beat it first, years ago — but she liked the detailed open world it came with that was free to explore even after she ran out of missions. To this day she believed that she hadn’t discovered every nook and corner just yet. At least the game was online and so there was the possibility of having company.

Mostly, it was only Diego who appeared alongside her in the game, but every now and then she’d meet someone else from other rooms in the orphanage who still hadn’t gotten bored of playing the only game they owned. It was easier for others to get bored — they could walk, which gave them a lot of other options to spend the day. The robot nurses couldn’t process a request easy as “take me to the common room,” apparently. Or they were not willing to process it, somehow.

When she first started to play this game, the only thing she wanted to be able to do was remembering how it felt to move freely again. She created an unassuming character for herself, without choosing a single supernatural power that the game offered. Walking was a miracle in itself, she didn't need more. At least for now. 

What she did not realize was that the game would imitate real life. It didn’t care what you signed up for. In fact, the very intention to bear no significance in the game prompted her character’s backstory to have superpowers thrust upon her instead. Just at the prologue of the game, not even more than an hour into playing, Ava would turn out to be the chosen one, with a burning Halo on her character’s back.

“I wanted to be the chosen one,” Diego kept complaining when they first began to play together.

Ironically enough, while his character was supposed to be a magician from the get-go, his backstory turned out to be losing those powers and having to navigate his way through the adventure without any of them. 

“Screw this game,” Ava commented. “I just wanted to have one thing and it wasn't powers.”

She hated when the game thought it knew more about it players than it did. She hated unnecessary twists.

But as the game progressed, she grew accustomed to the Halo and the perks it granted her — to the point that while she played through all the other storylines for the lack of a better option, she would still go back to her very first character after she completed all the missions and went back to simply exploring the open world. She grew attached to her namesake, and to the Halo, too. 

It was night-time in the game again. She was dropped down where she was last active in the game: On the side of a wide road in an imaginary city that was probably modelled after a bustling metropolis. Skyscrapers that were built in the old, traditional style were shooting towards the stars above her, reflecting the thick colours of neon signs and traffic lights.

As most of the players deserted the servers already, there were few cars running along the road — only the ones that were carrying NPCs going in circles until the end of time, possibly. What once must have been a bustling metropolis in the heyday of this game now seemed like an empty ghost city. She sometimes wondered how different the experience must have been when people were still actively playing. Now her only interaction in the game was with non-playable characters and with Diego when he was around. 

Ava checked both sides of the street before she crossed, trying to see if any buildings were open in the vicinity. For the lack of any better entertainment, she went into every single shop, restaurant, hotel, and any other open building that were made accessible through the game. Ava’s closest link to the outside world was this game — that had the ambience of Earth more than a hundred years ago. She couldn’t even tell how true to life it was. Well, beggars can’t be choosers. 

So much, that she’d sometimes get into an aimless conversation with the NPCs walking around, just to pretend that she had a normal, healthy social life. As if she did not spend her days talking to robots anyway. What was the difference? 

She noticed a street vendor a few blocks down, taking up a small corner at the bottom of a building. A life-like taste experience was not really perfected in this game, but that didn’t stop her from buying a skewer of grilled chicken pieces anyway. When you played this game non-stop for long years, you were most likely the richest woman in the universe anyway so she wouldn't miss the money.

“You had this spot for long?” she asked the man, as he handed the skewer over. 

They would usually answer something, but this time the man just ignored him. Maybe the game didn’t understand her question properly. Ava shrugged and sampled the chicken anyway. 

“Mm. Tastes vaguely like food,” she mumbled with her mouth full as she began to make her way further down the street. 

The thing is, even at the orphanage meals only tasted vaguely like food too, so there was not much of a difference. 

“Diego?” she called out, but the boy must have been exploring somewhere else. 

The next few blocks were completely abandoned, and inaccessible to players. Ava would go door to door, trying to open one, but she was met with reluctance on the other side. Thinking back, this part of the map was definitely for only a short interlude in the game itself, so it would make sense not to develop it much further.

“Too bad,” she said to herself, wondering what she should do with the skewer she had her street food on earlier.

Was it littering if you did it in a game? Did she really care about it that much? The game creators would normally plop a trash can down on every street to create an authentic atmosphere, but no matter where she looked, none was to be found here. Whoever was working on this town was really lazy. What was she supposed to do with her trash now? 

She put it in her inventory and forgot about it soon. 

The next thing she found was who she assumed to be Diego at first. A figure standing in the window of a nearby building, seemingly bracing for a jump. 

“Hey, Diego,” Ava warned him. “You know that jumping comes with actual damage unless you’re the Halo Bearer. Use the stairs.” 

Only when she walked closer did Ava realize that it was not her friend in the window at all, but some random non-playable character, dressed in religious habit. Poor thing was probably stuck up there due to some glitch. She wondered how she could take this lady for Diego’s character. Can someone’s eyesight deteriorate in virtual reality too? 

“Come on, sister! Don’t do it!” Ava yelled anyway. She snorted, thinking that the situation was somehow funny. “Did you forget that God won’t let you in if you jump?” 

The NPC refused to answer. This part of the map really was built by lazy people, Ava confirmed in her head, as she was just about to walk away from the dreadful scene. 

“I’m just looking for something,” the nun said. “I wish this game had a better map function.” 

“Oh,” Ava replied.

Then, she added a few moments later after she made sense of her words. “Wait. You’re real?” 

“I am,” the nun answered, as she began to climb down the fire escape staircase near the window she was standing in. “Are you a player?”

“A real veteran at this game. At your service, sister.”

The nun looked down at her garments. “I forgot I was wearing this.” 

Her accent sounded vaguely British, and her tone just a little too old to be playing from inside an orphanage, so Ava suspected this was a meeting of chance. She could be from anywhere in the world. Just a random girl, playing the same ancient game as Ava. 

“I used to play this game when I was much younger,” the nun explained. 

“What brought you back?”

“I remembered that I left something behind here.” 

“ _Oooh_ ,” Ava commented, as she decided to tag along and follow the girl to wherever she was headed. 

She came back for something exciting, after all. And Ava was starved out for exciting.

Now that she thought back on it, she remembered that she also used to play a nun character during her numerous playthroughs. It really was not her personal favourite — she didn’t feel like herself. 

“Let’s go and get your forgotten treasure, girl.” 

The nun didn’t tell her to get lost, so she assumed it was safe to follow her. She did not seem like she actually wanted company, but her attitude was neutral enough for Ava to just take her chances and tag along. She did not even remember when was the last time she ran into a real person who wasn’t Diego. 

For a moment, she forgot what one was supposed to do when they met a stranger.

“I’m Ava, by the way. If you won’t tell me your name, I’ll just keep calling you sister.” 

“My name is Beatrice.”

“Cool: Sister Beatrice.” 

Sister Beatrice walked just fast enough to show that she had places to be at, so Ava followed after her, skipping as she was overcome by something not unlike excitement. Somewhere on the horizon, the sun began to come up in the game, painting the city skyline pink and orange. Although she had seen the same dawn multiple times, she never had enough of it. It was always the small things in virtual reality. 

They crossed a bridge above a cobalt-coloured river, laying in a stoned riverbed. Ava stared at the morning sun glistening on the surface of the water for a moment until she realized that Beatrice was already far ahead of her. She ran to catch up with her before she’d lose sight of her among the tall buildings. 

Beatrice made a sharp turn not soon after, and led them down a few steps, into a green park hidden within the concrete jungle. They passed by a couple of benches until Beatrice stopped for a moment to think, then headed towards a certain tree, standing unassumingly among many other greenery.

She crouched down, attempting to unearth something near it.

“Are we looking for a treasure for real?” Ava asked, standing next to the trunk of the tree as she watched the girl working. “Gold? Some cool weapon you found earlier?”

“Before you attack me for it, it’s not something useful in the game,” Beatrice warned her.

“Come on, sister. You think I’d beat you up for some in-game reward?” 

She looked up at Ava and gave her a pointed look. “Last time I played, it was common practice, I’m sure you remember too.”

Ava kicked the foot of the tree as a distraction.

“I haven’t played this game when it was popular. So my experience with it is… that it’s filled with ghosts.” 

Beatrice finally found the thing she was looking for. It was a small egg-shaped trinket that opened in the middle. She forced it open to check the contents — from where Ava was looking at it, it was only a simple white paper hidden inside — then slammed it shut. 

“If the game experience sucked so much, why did you play though?” Ava asked. 

The answer was simple.

“Sometimes, the company makes it worth enduring. And sometimes, you learn how to fight so you wouldn’t have to endure.” 

She stood up and made sure not to make eye contact with Ava. 

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Ava said, as a matter of fact. Then, she added. “So did you stop playing when good company was gone?” 

“I had to stop playing for personal reasons.” 

Ava sensed that there was something more behind the story that her newly acquired nun acquaintance was not willing to tell. 

“Sounds like a lot went down.” 

Beatrice finally looked at her again. The golden, honey-tint in her brown eyes made Ava wonder if she modelled her character after herself, or created a whole new persona for the game. She never noticed sadness reflect so well on people’s eyes in this game before. Perhaps she was only imagining things.

“At times you learn how to fight so well in games that you forget it won’t help you defend yourself in reality. Thanks to that, I learnt not to be careless anymore. That I need to cover all of my bases.” 

She shook her head as if she said too much and was trying to make the thoughts go away.

“But what about you? Why are you still in the game?” 

“It’s the only place I can be.” 

That sentence seemed to alarm Beatrice. She stepped backwards. 

“You mean… you’re stuck in virtual reality?” 

“Oh, no. I mean, I wish. But I just don’t have another game to play so I’m permanently haunting the ghost towns of twenty-whenever-this-is.” 

Beatrice made her way back to the street but she wasn’t in a hurry this time. Meanwhile, the sun had come up completely. 

“Back in my day, they were trying to deter us from playing with stories of people getting stuck in this game,” she explained. “It was never confirmed of course. But for a moment…”

Ava laughed. 

“My existence scared the shit out of you.” Beatrice nodded as an answer. “Don’t sweat, I’ve been alone here for so long, I think if anyone, I’d know if people got stuck in here.” 

“So you never meet anyone?” 

“No, only people from… the place I live in.” For some reason, saying orphanage was difficult. After all, while she was alive, her mother used to tell her not to give out her personal information when she was online. “Why?”

“I never got to say goodbye,” Beatrice said, curtly. 

“I feel like there’s more to this story than what you’re telling,” she observed as she caught up with the girl, walking next to her. 

“There’s always more to it. There must be more to your story too.” 

Beatrice did not seem to be offended, although she was somewhat reserved when the topic resurfaced. 

“I’ll tell you more if you tell me more?”

She smiled but refused to give out more information on the story. Instead, she began to talk about something else. Or perhaps there was a connection, but Ava could not figure out the hidden meaning behind her words. 

“This used to be my favourite location in-game. I feel like I came home after being away for too long.” 

As much as she grew tired of this place, Ava understood the sentiment. This was home for her in a different way than Beatrice, probably. But whenever she was here, she remembered how it felt to have the freedom of movement — and she imagined how it must have felt like for others her age to go outside and do whatever they felt like on a whim. It might have been escapism, yet, it was closer to the reality that other people lived. 

Beatrice made her way back to the river they crossed earlier. There was not a single person at sight and she seemingly noticed this too.

“You must have been really lonely,” she said, out of the blue. “We all played this game for the company we found along the way, but if you say that barely anyone has been logging in—” 

Ava flapped her hand, almost defensively. “You know, born and raised a loner.”

“Me too.” Beatrice seemed to remember something. “What is why I turned to virtual company.” 

If Ava had a sure way of saying that she had been trapped in an orphanage, unable to move or fend for herself at all, she would have said it. It wasn’t like she had been a princess, locked away in a crystal tower, but she certainly felt like it at times. When she thought about it, she never imagined a Prince Charming to come and rescue her — but she also never imagined a warrior nun, or whatever Beatrice was in this game. 

But what could she do? It wasn’t like anyone imprisoned her in the orphanage. In fact, she should have been more concerned about what would happen to her after she needs to leave. 

“There is no other option for me,” Ava decided to say then because she didn’t know how she could pretend this was just a big joke instead. 

Beatrice looked at her without saying anything, but there were a lot of questions reflecting in her eyes. If she wanted to explain, this would have been the time. As she opened her mouth, she could hear a faint noise coming from somewhere nearby. It was real life calling. Lunch must be ready. 

“I need to go, lunch is being served,” she quickly said, knowing that she’d disappear from the game within seconds. “Are you going to be here la—?” 

But Ava never got to finish her sentence.


	2. Secret Basement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a very cool translation project offered up to me that I started working on last week, so I had much less time for writing fics, but I am hoping to finish this story at one point, although it may take longer than expected.

By the time Ava entered the game again, Beatrice was gone without a trace left behind. She walked around the area where they last saw each other, hoping that she would spot the girl somewhere, waiting for her to come back.  


It made sense, Ava told herself. Not all of them were bored orphans, starved out for the company of others. Beatrice did tell her that she came back for one specific thing only. She was probably much busier than to wait around for a girl who pulled out of the game so fast that she wasn’t even able to say a proper goodbye. 

She wasn’t surprised — but she may have as well been a little disappointed. By the time she made it back, the artificial sun in the sky was about to sink behind the horizon again, painting all the building windows shades of red and orange. For a while she stared into the blinding light, dancing on the glass, then decided it would be time for her to move onto a new area to explore.  


Being alone was her normal state of being. Maybe she wouldn’t even know what to do with someone who decided to tag along. Her solitude might as well have been for her own protection, so people wouldn’t think that she was all sorts of weird, ignorant, useless, and fucked up. She often wondered if that is what it was. That the humans who ran her orphanage did not think she was deserving of even the simplest of human contact to leave her to the care of robots and at the mercy of her only roommate. 

Cellmate, even. 

Bye-bye Sister Beatrice, Ava thought to herself as she made her way through the abandoned ghost town. She wondered how different this place must have looked like when players were still swarming the streets. Did it feel like taking a walk in real life? Would she be bumping into people who were rushing to complete a thousand different side quests?  


She spotted an old metro station that would serve as a quick travel point between certain locations and made her way towards the stairs. Before she’d arrive at the bottom, an unfamiliar voice called out behind her.

“Is that you? Are you the girl who’s still playing the game?”

Startled, Ava turned back, just to see another girl standing on top of the stairs, looking down at her. She had a stern expression on her face and two shotguns on her side that made Ava immediately more suspicious than she should have been. One meeting of chance for a day was strange enough. But two? Something was off.  


“Who’s asking?” 

“See, when Bea suddenly contacts us out of the blue and tells us to assemble here because she has someone we need to meet, I already think something weird is going on. But seeing your face now, I get it. You’re cute.” 

She made her way down the stairs as well, approaching Ava, who could not take her eyes off of the shotguns. Nothing the girl had said really penetrated her mind: It had been too long since she last died in this game and she was not too keen on repeating the experience. She was almost shocked by her own distrust towards this stranger. Then again, game or real life, very few people with good intentions had their guns out.  


The Halo, she told herself. She may have guns, but you have the Halo. 

“Easy,” the girl said, noticing the threatening glow at her back. “I’m telling you I’m here ‘cause Bea sent me.”

When someone tapped on her shoulder from behind, Ava almost screamed from surprise. 

“Shus now, I’m Camila. You don't need to be alarmed.” She emerged on tiptoes to shout at the other stranger. “Mary, have you introduced yourself to her?” 

“I was a bit busy trying to make sure she won’t leave this part of town before Bea gets back here.” She nodded at Ava as a greeting. “Name’s Mary.” 

“What the fuck,” Ava only asked, half under her breath. 

The girl who introduced herself as Camila moved over so she wouldn't be standing behind her anymore. When she saw the unmistakable habit she was wearing, things began to make more sense. Well, not really, but at least she noticed a pattern.  


“Bea disappeared from the game without almost any warning years ago, then the next time we hear from her, she’s asking us to reconvene here and meet a girl who might need some company.” 

Ava heard all the words she was saying but they only started making sense to her long afterwards. A third stranger wearing religious habit approached them from the underground metro station, then finally Beatrice was back in the game as well. 

“You made it,” she remarked, sounding equal amounts of pleased and surprised. 

“Not all of us,” Mary told her. “Shannon has left. And _s_ _ he  _ left too…”

Beatrice nodded as if she knew this would happen. 

“I never expected everyone to make it. I never really expected anyone to make it, to begin with."  


Ava looked from one girl to the other. She felt like she was dropped into some movie and watching the events fold out from way too close. Clearing her throat, she tried to get a word in.

“Sorry. Who are you? What’s going on? Why are we here?” 

Camila gently grabbed her by the arm and led her towards the surface again.

“Let’s find somewhere more comfortable to talk. This station is grim."  


A few minutes later they were outside again, basking in the bright neon lights. Apart from Ava, all the other players came back after a long time, so they were all quiet while observing the empty, abandoned streets around them.

“I know a place,” Beatrice told them then, taking the lead.

She led them towards a narrow alley a few blocks down, where neon lights and paper lanterns mixed with one another, hanging from the walls and advertising all these places that were not accessible to players anymore. 

Among all the closed shops with the shutters pulled down, Beatrice pointed at a door that led them underground into a shop in the building’s basement. The space was so limited at the entrance that Ava felt like her shoulders would get stuck between the walls as she went downstairs. The inside of the shop was in stark contrast with the entrance.

The lights were bright to the point that they almost felt like natural sunlight. Each wall was covered by several different, boldly patterned wallpapers and one fun coloured square of carpet bled into another. Ava looked up at the ceiling only to meet their own reflection — a bunch of strangers dressed in dark colours, juxtaposed against their bright surroundings.

“I never knew of this place,” Ava commented.

“It isn’t relevant to the game. I only stumbled upon it accidentally.” Beatrice pointed at the empty bar. “I never saw anyone else here.” 

They sat down on white sofas around a small table and an awkward silence fell between them. Ava finally had some time to process their earlier conversation. She was sitting here with a couple of other girls who had not seen each other for some years. At least that was what she got from context. She scratched the back of her head.

“Okay, so, who’s gonna tell me what I’m doing with a bunch of nuns in a secret, trippy basement?” 

Mary nodded along her words a few times.

“Actually, I’d like to know that, too.” 

“I mean…” Ava looked from one nun to the other. “Who are you?” 

Camila seemed to be the only person who did not feel awkward by the atmosphere that suddenly took over the entire room. She gave her a friendly smile before answering.  


“That’s easy: We are Warrior Nuns.” 

Her answer didn't really bring Ava any closer to the truth, though. 

“We used to play this game as a team,” Beatrice continued, but her voice was much more solemn. “We met each other here and became a team. Friends."   


“A team of nuns,” Ava repeated, nodding. “Makes sense.” 

It made no sense to her at all. 

“And Mary,” Camila added. “She’s no nun. A team of nuns and Mary.”

“That is until Beatrice has disappeared without a trace, though. We haven't seen her for the longest time, then we all abandoned this game,” the girl added whose name Ava still didn’t know. 

After asking, they made a brief introduction. Her name was Lilith. (Ava wondered if this was her real-life name, too.) The way she carried herself rivalled Mary in her sternness and even her habit wouldn't soften her appearance at all. Ava thought she looked kind of badass but frightening at the same time. 

Beatrice tried to explain what happened to her without explaining anything at all. 

“To say in short, I was forcibly removed from this game and I had no way to let them know what happened. When I came back earlier today, I was looking for our secret place. Where we’d leave small messages to each other when we missed the team in the game. It also had our contact details in real life should anything happen—”

Camila spoke again but her voice wasn’t so cheery this time.

“But when we tried to reach you there was never any answer.”

“I know. I wanted to contact you as soon as I could, but this date ended to be the soonest.” 

Ava thought that if she really wanted to, she could cut the awkwardness in the air with her bare hands. On one hand, she did not really understand why she had to take part in the feud of a bunch of old friends, but on the other hand, this was the most interesting thing that had happened to her in years. On her third hand, she really wanted to know what exactly happened to Beatrice that she disappeared from the face of this virtual Earth for years only to come back now. 

“Quick question,” she interjected, before she could properly think about what she wanted to say. “You all know each other but what’s my role exactly in this nun-odrama?” 

Lilith looked at her with eyes that could kill but it only made her think that her pun was perfection. At the same time, Beatrice stared at the ceiling for a second, sucking her lower lip in. She was either trying not to laugh or not to cry. Perhaps both.  


“When I started playing this game, I was alone until these girls came along and showed me what it felt like to be a part of something. When I came back and met you, you somehow reminded me of the girl I used to be before these girls found me.” Beatrice cleared her throat. “Why would you be wandering alone in an abandoned game if you had anything better to do in real life?” 

Ava looked at her with clear eyes and something very strongly squeezing at her throat. She had always been very aware of her own solitude but when a stranger saw right through her, years of bottled up feelings wanted to come out at the same time, breaking the floodgate. Copying Beatrice from earlier, she also stared at the ceiling to keep a few stubborn tears inside. The fact that she could see her own reflection up there didn’t help. 

“I saw the girl I used to be in you, Ava, and I wanted her to know that she did not need to be alone. And the fact that they came back for the both of us proves me right.” 

Was she so transparent that her story could be understood completely after a short conversation? Ava wondered. She was sitting alone in a secret basement of an outdated video game with a bunch of nuns who turned up from nowhere, and yet this was the most she felt in a long time. Sometimes, when your life is so mellow and stagnant, even the strangest things that take you out of your sorrowful routine could seem like a treasure. 

She had met Beatrice by chance earlier and now she came back offering her a community. Even if that community will end up proving to be ephemeral, she’d be spending her afternoon with a collection of weird nuns. Which reminded her.

“I’m nowhere near a nun, though.” 

“We’re not real nuns either,” Camila told her. “It just sounded fun at the time we came up with it.” 

She had no idea how to put her gratitude for their company into words, so she forced on an aloof, nonchalant air instead to try and force her emotions back in that trusty bottle she’d been using for the past few years.

“I guess if all you nuns want to hang out in an outdated game that has nothing new to offer, I won’t be the one stopping you.” 

“Not true,” Camila disagreed. “You can always get your fortune told a few blocks down — it’s never the same.” 

She stood up and clapped her hand, urging the other girls to move on and get their palms read for a fortune. Not the most nun-like thing to do, Ava thought. It’s nun-like them, so to say. This time, she did not say it out loud because something told her she wouldn't be able to keep her head on her neck if she did so. 

They moved deeper into the alleyway then entered even smaller side-streets until Ava felt like they were in the eye of a maze, even removed from the game itself. She never knew that the side streets were so detailed in this part of town. 

Finally, they arrived at some crossroads and the pink neons and lanterns were back in the picture again. Under one the eaves of one of the buildings, an old man sat on a stool. He stared into the distance, the lights illuminating his face with red and pink. A sign next to him with a palm drawn on it advertised his services.

Ava had seen several non-playable characters every here and there with these signs, but she never once stopped to ask for her fortune before. She always felt like they couldn’t possibly give her anything she wanted to hear.

“He’s my favourite,” Camila explained. “They only give one-liners but I think it’s fun.” 

Now that she came here with a whole delegation, she felt like she needed to get the first fortune of her life. Ava sat down on the empty stool before the man and showed her virtual palm to him. 

“Tell me something good, grandpa,” she asked him.  


There was some silence until he took a quick look at her hand, then spat a randomized sentence out almost immediately.

“It is not your mind you need to make a run from."  


Ava looked at Beatrice then at Camila before darting up from the stool and taking a few steps back. She was well aware that there was no logic or reason behind this game but it didn’t make her fortune any more enjoyable. 

“Cool. Great. I see how fun this is. Very nice of this guy to drag me like that.” 

"That line would work on anyone who's playing this game," Mary thought. 

Camila got her fortune told from both hands, just for good measure. In the meanwhile, Ava was looking for the artificial moon on the sky, although it was almost obscured by the buildings around them. With this many people gathered at the same small space, she almost got a taste of how this game could have been when it was still popular. She almost forgot it was only a game.  


Mary pointed at her, bringing her back to the present. 

“Asking for a friend who came back from her exile or Lord knows what just to get you some company — but is this how you look in real life?”

Beatrice inhaled sharply, and she could not decide if she sounded more annoyed or embarrassed. 

“You’re not wrong when you call it an exile,” was the only thing she decided to say, with a very careful accent.   


Ava looked down at her feet and her hands. “I mean, this is how I look, more or less. I don’t dress this cool.” 

Mary gave a pointed look to Beatrice with something almost close to a grin on her face.  


“There you go.” 

“Why, do you guys look like this?” Ava asked too, although she felt like there was a nuance she was missing from this interaction.

“Beatrice does and that’s all you need to know for now.” 

When Camila was done with her fortunes, she waved a heartfelt goodbye to the fortune-teller before leading them back towards the metro station where they came from. It was getting late and most of them decided to say their goodbyes. Ava couldn't decide if they made her feel at home, or just like an outsider in her own game.  


“We’ll be back though to visit you,” they promised, as they logged off one by one, disappearing from the game.

A few minutes later only Ava and Beatrice remained in the empty street. Ava leaned against the wall that was built around the entrance to the metro station and looked at the desolate city around them. The same car passed by them for the tenth time, aimlessly wandering in the nothingness as it went around the city in an endless loop.   


“You ghosted your friends but asked them to meet me the first second you could get in contact with them,” Ava said, summarizing their afternoon. “That was kind of cool of you.”

“I meant what I said earlier. I know these girls — we had all been loners in our own way before meeting each other. I thought you’d fit right in.”

When her brown eyes met Ava's she couldn't help but stared deep into them. They weren't even real, Ava had to remind herself.   


“Warrior Nuns,” she said, snickering. “It’s a lame name, though.” 

Beatrice had no further explanation for her but announced that she would need to be leaving soon too. Ava nodded at her a few times letting her go and only called out to her in the last moment. 

“Thanks for coming back for me,” she said. 

“I will always come back for you, Ava. You don’t have to be alone.” She waved goodbye with a thin smile.  


But behind that thin smile, there was everything. 

Thinking that it would soon be time for dinner back at the orphanage, Ava also prepared to leave the game and save her last location.

But when she tried to open her eyes to real life, the only thing surrounding her would still be the ghost town from the game she wanted to leave. 


	3. Reconnected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are one of the handful of people who were actually waiting for this chapter to be released, I am so sorry I took this long! I ran into a very exciting opportunity, which involves getting some of my translations possibly published so I was a bit overwhelmed with that. But the final chapter is finally here so thank you for waiting!

She first thought it had to be a mistake. What else could it be? Then, the second and third time she only grew more frustrated and impatient, beginning to understand the severity of her situation.

Didn’t Beatrice say something about people getting stuck in this game? Forever that is? She could feel her heart leap in nervousness somewhere on the other side of consciousness, the only signal that she still had a living and breathing body somewhere and did not only download her mind to this decaying game after a tragic accident that happened on the other side. 

Ava wanted to scream.

And, because she was all alone in an abandoned virtual reality space with no ear-witnesses around, that she did. But screaming only made everything worse. 

Ava had known helplessness most of her life, since she was at the mercy of a remote little orphanage, tucked away from the eyes of the world in a small Andalusian city. The reality she was so desperate to run away from had finally forsaken her. 

She looked at the azure sky that used to be her escape and only saw another prison. Would she die in this place? Or was she dead already? 

Her previous, idle adventures in this game now came back to haunt her as every blessing turned into a curse in the matter of seconds. The Warrior Nuns would be back to visit her, of course. But she had no idea when. Ava was not a priority for them, after all. All of them had their own lives to worry about, back in the reality they called home. What if they only decided to drop in next week, and it was too late? 

It wasn’t the Warrior Nuns who found her first. It was Diego.

He was desperately running around in the area checking every nook and corner, clearly looking for her before he finally stumbled upon Ava, dangling her legs off the small bridge she once crossed before. 

“Ava? Where have you been? Where are you?” 

Ava pointed at herself. “Right here, dummy.”

“No, I mean… your bed is empty. Your side of the room is cleared up.” 

The possibility of having died and somehow having her abandoned consciousness stuck in this game shot through her head again. With that, she could clearly feel her nervous heartbeats somewhere in the distant reality that proved that she was still among the living.

“No. I’m alive.” She looked around as if she was trying to find something to handle into as the new information started to expand her mind. “Look, Diego. I don’t know what happened, but I cannot exit this game and I’m sure it has to do something with the fact that my room is empty.” 

Diego nodded.

“When I asked about you, they wouldn't answer at all. It's like… you just stopped existing completely.” 

As she listened to these words her heart began to beat again and again and again. The sensation only grew stronger as her despair started to get out of hand. 

“Don’t ask about me again, I don't want them to do anything to you,” she decided to say. “But I have something else I need you to do. Are you ready for some real-life video game-level shit, Diego?” 

Diego nodded, although she was not entirely sure that his whole heart was in that nod. She climbed off the bridge and beckoned him on a walk, back to the little park that Beatrice had shown her before. The tree. The small hole underneath. 

Ava desperately dug into the make-believe soil, until she found the small egg-shaped trinket at the same place where Beatrice retrieved it from earlier. A relieved sigh left her mouth: She had the faintest hope returning to her. 

She handed the trinket over to Diego. 

“Listen. There’s something you need to do for me. This has the contact details of some friends I met here. I want you to get a hold of them and tell them that I got stuck in the game.” Ava sighed. “If you can reach Beatrice, tell her.”

“Can she help?” Diego asked.

Ava shook her head. “I don’t know. Kinda running out of options here, though.”

If she had disappeared from her room, then whoever runs the orphanage must know about her current situation. They might even be responsible for it. Which means that Beatrice and her friends were her only way back to real life. If they really took her away, then Diego asking around about her might only cause him harm. 

Release could only come from outside the orphanage. 

She called after Diego before he would log off.

“Tell her that she will find me in the secret basement.” 

Diego disappeared with a nod, and she was left all alone in the world again. She crossed this ghost town again, back from the outskirts towards the desolate skyscrapers, then into the maze of alleyways studded with lanterns and signs hung low. Thinking of the loneliness of this place, she lifted her gaze up to the virtual sky, not a single cloud this time. 

What was she so desperately trying to get back to? This game had been the highlight of her life, and suddenly she wanted to go back to the reality that had forsaken her multiple times. Would she be better off dead than condemned to solitude in this place? 

Ava made her way downstairs into the basement again. When she visited here earlier, the bright colours made it look cosy and fun but without the other girls to fill the space, everything felt distant and artificial. She plopped down on one of the fluffy sofas, staring at her virtual self in the mirrored ceiling. 

It was a waiting game until one of the girls would turn up. That, or until she was dead on the other side. Would she know? Ava wondered. Would she be able to tell if it was too late? Her mind kept reeling.  


She needed to wait a few hours until some footsteps were audible in the distance, walking down the stairs. Ava darted up immediately. When the door to the basement opened, it was Beatrice’s face on the other side. 

“Ava?”

Although they had only been separated for a day at most, she jumped up and embraced her without giving it any further thought or consideration. There was a slight delay on Beatrice’s side, but soon she could feel her arms wrapping around her too. 

“Ava. I cannot stay for long,” Beatrice’s voice told her, from somewhere very near her ears. “I cannot help you from here.” 

Hearing that immediately made her throat close up and she clung even more fiercely to Beatrice. The possibility of being here all alone and forever was more frightening than she would have first imagined. 

“I don’t wanna be left alone anymore. I don’t wanna be stuck in here.” 

“The girls are on it. We will be back for you.”

The world weighed down on her with everything. Even all those thoughts that she never dared to consider before.  


“What if you can’t get me out of here? Will my consciousness be trapped in this game forever? Will I die?”

If she wanted to be honest to herself, none of her options were great. Deep inside she wanted to unlock a yet unseen path, a world where she would not have to compromise anything to be alive. No more depending on the kindness of others. No more boredom and rotting away at crappy orphanages. She almost found her place the other day, and she wanted it back, she wanted to be able to own it, instead of always living on borrowed and stolen opportunities. 

Slowly, she released Beatrice from the embrace.  


“I thought I wanted to die, but not like that. Not alone.” 

Beatrice’s fingers ran through her locks absent-mindedly. “You aren’t alone anymore, Ava. You don't have to be alone anymore. Now you have us. I came here so you would know that we are making efforts to get you out of here. But I need to go soon. I need to do my part.” 

Hope mixed with melancholy in her heart as she watched Beatrice ascend the stairs again.

“I wanna know that I can see you again. Can you promise we’ll see each other again?”

Beatrice turned back and she recognized a strange glimmer in her eyes, although Ava knew it wasn’t possible. They weren’t her real eyes. 

“In this life, or the next.” 

Her words were ominous and yet Ava found something comforting in them. She restlessly returned to the fluffy sofa and threw herself on it again. Even if she were to close her eyes, she could not feel the sense of fatigue in this game. Sleep also was not possible. Unlike reality, her mind would be reeling the whole day, leaving her consciousness permanently aware and running. Ava did not realize how comforting sleep was for the brain until she was deprived of it completely, left alone with her own thoughts and theories for hours longer than she could count. 

Time began to disappear and fade away. Even her heartbeats became more distant, no matter how hard she tried to focus on them. She wondered if her body on the other side was struggling to stay alive, or if his consciousness finally began to separate itself from the flesh that she considered herself before. Would a time come when this self that she sees in the mirror would feel more authentic than the body she left? 

She began walking around in the basement, familiarizing herself with the place. This could be her only home from now on, a lonely home. The carpet almost felt soft under her feet as she sunk into it deeper with each step. 

If things came to that, and they would not be able to rescue her from this game, she should just continue on her journey and travel her consciousness through this world until sanity abandons her, at last, providing her story with an end. 

After an endless loop of waiting and circling around the room, Diego finally found her again. 

“Your friends responded!” Diego told her, with both excitement and nervousness in his voice. “They said they were going to find you.”

“Find me?” 

Hearing that only gave her heart such a leap that she could feel it again for a moment. It should have been a feeling of relief but she was not sure if hope was the only thing she felt. 

“What do you mean find me?” 

“I told them about the orphanage, and how you went missing the other day. I think they took you, Ava. Weren’t you about to turn twenty soon—? What if they were to abandon you because you were of age and unfit to be here? So they took you somewhere?”

There was only one somewhere else Ava could think of and she really did not like that possibility. 

She bit her lower lip and looked at Diego. 

“Go back before they find you talking to me.” 

He nodded, as a goodbye.

“Be careful, Ava.” 

The only thing she needed to be careful about here was not losing her mind before someone else found her in real life. But the more she thought about it, the harder the task seemed to be. She missed being asleep. She missed putting her mind at ease for a least a few hours, and she desperately wanted to get away from the thoughts that haunted her.

Yes, Beatrice and the rest of the girls might be on their way to find her but they know nothing about her. They know nothing about her situation. 

The girl they met here is just her virtual counterpart, with a glowing Halo on her back, ready to square off any time. On the other hand, the Ava in real life could barely move her middle finger even if she poured all her efforts into that one motion. Would they think she was worthy of saving if they knew all that? 

And besides, where are they all coming from? They could be anywhere in the world right now. Why would anyone make such efforts to save an orphan from the prison of her own mind? 

Wanting to find some escape, she left the basement and went on an aimless walk. The night-time sun was up in the sky of the game, glowing in silver somewhere in the distance. With the side streets empty, she only found the same fortune-teller sitting by the closed shops. Lanterns were glowing red and orange around him. Ava shrugged, knowing that she had already lost everything there was to lose.

She held her hand out to the man and turned her palm upwards.

“Hit me,” she said, asking for a fortune. 

For a moment, there was silence. Then, he repeated himself. 

“It is not your mind you need to be running from.” 

Ava thought that the game was deteriorating, as Camila promised her earlier that every fortune would be new and unique, never heard before. 

“What should I be running from then?” she asked, but no answer came. “Yeah. Thought so.” 

She turned away from the scene, looking for somewhere else to go. This ghost town was getting on her nerves already. She continued to walk away from the streets she came from, until the roads opened up again, revealing a different cityscape before her. It was still the same town she met Beatrice at some days ago but she left the centre, and the colours calmed down around her.

There was only a single source of colour, a tunnel between here and there, lit up with the colours of the rainbow. On the other side, she would be able to enter another station and leave for a different part in the game. She began to make her way across the station, bathing in the light. Her skin reflected all the colour, illuminated with an ethereal glow. She could hear a distant ringing in her ears that grew louder with each step she took, inviting her down, inviting her beyond. 

Ava stared at the escalators that waited for her at the end of the tunnel, continuing down below with a similar colourful glow. She gripped the handrail and stepped onto the escalator, which began to take her down with a whir. 

The ringing in her ears only got louder as she contemplated where she should be going next. Along with the whirring, colours began to pour into her eyes until they disappeared and there was only darkness around her for long seconds. Her heartbeats drew closer, resounding in her ears.

Then, she opened her eyes and inhaled deeply.  


There was a light touch on her cheeks, paired with a worried voice. 

“Ava? Ava?” 

“What happened?” 

When her eyes could finally focus, she saw a vaguely familiar face staring into hers. It took her a moment to connect the faces, but she certainly looked like someone from the game.

“Beatrice? Is that you?” 

Beatrice nodded as a response.  


“You really do look similar to the game… Incredible.” As she said that, Ava quickly looked around. They were in a room with large windows that allowed the light to pour straight inside. “Where are we?” 

“Diego got in contact with us. He said he suspected they wanted to abandon you, because he suspected you might be too old to be enrolled in an orphanage. He thought they might want to abandon your consciousness in the game, so you wouldn't be aware of what happening, and let you… well, disappear in real life.” 

So she had been right, Ava thought. They would have let her die here. In the meanwhile, Beatrice finished her thought.

“So after this Mary found out where this orphanage exactly is based on Diego's information, and I came here to claim you. Surely they would be happy to get you off their hands if someone came to specifically ask for you.” 

Ava was dumbstruck. 

“But you…” She could not find the right words to say suddenly, as if her brain short-circuited in the most crucial moment. “I mean... How did you even come here?”

“I just took a pod. I recently moved back to London, so it’s really just a few hours’ distance. We were lucky to have you so close.” 

Ava wouldn’t really know of course. The last time she was on a journey, it took a very grim turn, and it had been over a decade ago. 

“They said you had no belongings with you when you came, so we can just leave whenever you are ready.” 

She looked into Beatrice’s eyes, trying to find the truth behind them. It couldn’t be that easy, right? It couldn’t be that someone she just met would travel any distance just to make sure she was safe. There had to be a catch, right? She didn’t even know who this Beatrice was, besides the whole Warrior Nun thing. 

“So what?” Ava asked. “You’re just gonna take me home?”

“It’s my first time making a very rash decision like this, so I could use some help there. But yes, I suppose so. We’ll figure things out from there.”

“You know I can’t…” Ava rolled her eyes, trying to point down to her limbs. “Move and everything, yeah? Still want to save me?” 

“Diego told me.” 

Beatrice fetched an old wheelchair that was stationed in the side of the room and rolled it over near her, helping to transfer onto it. Staff must have left that for her when she came to claim Ava.  


“Then why?”

“I told you you do not have to be alone anymore.” 

From the walls to the furniture, everything was so white that it caused Ava an eyesore. The only colourful spot in her periphery was Beatrice, but she was clad in dark clothes instead. She wondered how the real outside would look like after all these years spent locked away in the past. 

Beatrice continued.

“Years ago, out of my own foolishness, I got disconnected from my friends and my community. I lost someone important to me when that happened. I do not want that to happen again.” 

Before she would roll Ava out of the establishment, Diego came running to say his last goodbyes. There was nobody else from the orphanage who would even see them off. She looked back at the building for one last time before they’d enter Beatrice’s pod. 

“I think this orphanage owes me at least a shitty wheelchair,” Ava said when she saw the hesitation in Beatrice’s eyes. “I say we take it as a souvenir."  


The walls to Beatrice’s pod were completely transparent, so she could see everything that was happening on the outside. Within a few minutes, her eyes would not even be able to find the orphanage she once called home, eaten up by the nature surrounding it. 

Ava took a deep breath as if she was finally released from a nightmare, entering a more peaceful side of a dream. The world around her changed in a matter of minutes, beckoning her back into a future she had almost forgotten about.

When she looked away from the window, she realized that Beatrice was staring at her. The girl smiled, and there was something much more beautiful about that smile than its counterpart in virtual. Ava could feel her heartbeats quickening up again. 

The world was full of questions and doubts, but for the first time in long years, it was also full of hope. She smiled back at Beatrice and allowed her fate to change. 

“Well, Ava. Are you ready to reconnect?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am still thinking about writing some further chapters that actually explore how Ava and Beatrice cope with the aftermath but for now, I'll end it here.


End file.
